Shooting Hoops is the Aim of a New Photography Series

A basketball court photographed by Thai Neave as part of his ‘Shooting Hoops’ documentary photo series.

Thai Neave

A basketball-obsessed photographer is giving new meaning to the term shooting hoops, snapping pictures of hundreds of courts around the city.

Photographer Thai Neave, 32 years old, started his “Shooting Hoops” documentary photo series in 2009 when he traveled from his home in Sydney to New York City, birthplace of numerous basketball legends and home to the famous Rucker Park courts.

The first photo he shot, an artistic black and white close-up looking through the hoop, was taken at the amateur basketball court known as the Cage on West fourth St in Greenwich Village.

Mr. Neave was so fond of this image that he decided to continue to project on weekends after he relocated to New York from Sydney to take a job as an anchor for an international edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter, which has since been cancelled.

“The best thing about photography is that the camera acts as a leash and takes you to places, down streets, where you wouldn’t have gone,” said Mr. Neave, who first developed a love for the game as a teenager and would run home from school to watch U.S. basketball highlights.

“I’d walk all over the city, and it sent me on a journey down just about every street in all of New York, which was a really good way to see the city.”

Mr. Neave has taken photos of about 550 individual basketball hoops in New York as part of his series, which is online and on Instagram.

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation recently conducted a survey of basketball courts in parks in each of the five boroughs. Officials said they recorded 1,139 full courts and 665 half-courts.

As part of his photo series, Mr. Neave has visited basketball courts all over New York City.

Thai Neave

Brooklyn has 371 full and 187 half courts, Manhattan has 201 full and 110 half courts, Queens has 307 full and 233 half courts, Staten Island has 57 full and 27 half courts, and the Bronx has 203 full and 108 half courts.

In order to try and document every one in the city, Mr. Neave said he sometimes had to jump fences and trespass to take his photos, which he shot during all hours and seasons.

“I definitely walked over the same terrain many different times, and I definitely got lost many times,” he said. “Every court is somebody’s home court. Often I’d ask people if they’d hop off the court for a few minutes so I could shoot the hoops, and they’d stop and say, ‘Alright.’”

While taking the photos in the series, Mr. Neave regularly played basketball at his local court, the Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side, befriending fellow players including a man who was homeless.

“With basketball, race doesn’t matter, age doesn’t matter, what you do for a living doesn’t matter. You’re just a basketball player,” said Mr. Neave.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from, we have one thing in common which unites us, a love of basketball.”

Mr. Neave has taken photos of about 550 individual basketball hoops in New York as part of his series, which is online and on Instagram.

Thai Neave

“He’s actually doing something that many players would do mentally,” said Mr. Woods, 56, who grew up in the South Bronx. “If I’m in Brooklyn and I happen to walk past a Chinese restaurant next to an alleyway, and I hear a ball bounce, I walk down the alley and see that there’s a court between two buildings. I walk around looking for a game. I drive my wife crazy.”

Mr. Woods still hits the court with the Sugar Daddies, a team of over 55 players who were the recreational division champions in their age group at the National Men’s Masters Basketball tournament earlier this month.

“We have a healthy tradition going back 100 years in terms of the level of playing and the talent coming out of this community,” said Mr. Woods of New York’s community basketball history.

Mr. Neave said he would love to see his photos exhibited in a New York City museum or at Madison Square Garden.

He has subsequently photographed basketball courts in other parts of the U.S., as well as in Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and his native Australia.

“People send me photos of hoops they’ve taken on their travels,” said Mr. Neave. “I’m known as the hoop guy.”